The JNCO Fad - Looking Back

today's video is brought to you by Skillshare the first two installments on my series on feds were about topics where I hadn't really experienced it firsthand the first one was about fidget spinners which were popular this year but with a demographic much younger than myself the second one was about the pet rock which was popular more than a decade before I was born so for this one I wanted to cover something where I was actually part of the fad and that's sort of the case with Jenko I'll get into that in a minute but first let's be clear about what we're talking about here these are the pants from the 90s that were extremely wide some of the leg openings measured 50 to 60 inches it's hard to envision exactly what that means so let me say it like this what's the waist size on your pants mine is 32 and there are little loose fitting the typical store doesn't sell much higher than maybe a 40 or 42 inch so as long as you're not dangerously overweight Jenko made jeans where the leg opening was wider than your waist size and I'm guessing whatever pants you're wearing right now the leg size isn't bigger than the waist size I felt the need to explain what these word because their popularity was short-lived the fine brothers made a video where teams reacted to them and most of the teens had never seen them before the rest of the video is basically these teenagers making fun of them and I can see why the style of these jeans is just about the exact opposite of what's popular today there's nothing further from a pair of skinny jeans but believe it or not it was this exact same mentality that made them popular in the words of Jenko they strive to challenge conventional ism explore the unfamiliar honor individuality you have to respect something like that I 100% agree I recommend a movie called Dead Poets Society that delivers that exact same message in a much different way but in either case the message is clear Jenko began in the 80s but it wasn't available to the public in a big way until the early 90s it was founded by two men from France living in Los Angeles the story goes that the Latino population around him was wearing these loose fitting pants and one of the two really liked the look he liked it so much it motivated him to build an entire clothing brand around it the whole idea was to market toward those who wanted to stand out if you're looking to make a statement with your jeans these will do it they were sold primarily by a retailer called merry-go-round who went bankrupt in 1994 and liquidated all their stores in 1996 you could make the argument that this was the best thing that's ever happened to Jenko it motivated them to change their brand they still weren't necessarily conventional but now they were viewed as more of a brand for skaters this change was a big part of what made them popular now it appealed to a larger group it was available in a wider range of stores it was soon available at PacSun JCPenney if you wanted to get a pair of janko's and a lot of people did it wasn't all that hard and because of this their sales went way up look at their sales right after they made this change these numbers are all estimates compiled from multiple sources but I trust they provide an accurate picture Jenko became huge they no longer appealed to those who wanted to stand out in 1998 if you wanted to stand out Jenko wouldn't have done the job let me repeat that in a funnier way in 1998 wearing these absurdly wide jeans with colorful graffiti type designs on the pockets wouldn't have made you stand out I'll tell you firsthand I never had the intention of rebelling or standing out in fact when I wore these pants my goal was to fit in everyone was wearing them now I was only seven or eight years old and I wasn't wearing anything too crazy even by today's standards we all like to look back at these ridiculous looking jeans and well ridicule them but the truth is most of them weren't this extreme their best selling sizes weren't nearly this big I wasn't wearing anything much bigger than you would see from most other brands at the time the thing that made them different for me was the crown on the back pocket that's how the other kids on the playground knew you were cool some schools were even banning them claiming they represented possible gang activity or that they were perfect for hiding weapons actually yeah they do seem like they would hide weapons pretty well these kind of issues couldn't have been good for the brand but imagine looking at a graph like this in 1998 you'd say this brand is going places well you can obviously be wrong sadly for Jenko it was all downhill after 1998 in 1999 the sales were nearly half of the previous year in 2000 the people who owned Jenko saw where the trend was going they saw the styles changing and just kind of gave up on it they shut down their main manufacturing plant and basically called it quits you could say the fad was at its height in 1998 and completely over by 2000 years later a Chinese company became involved and are responsible for the recent 2015 comeback attempt you can go on the Jenko website today and buy jeans that look very much like the ones they sold back in the day as well as some that look a little more modernized women - if I go to their bestsellers page seems like mostly 22 inch leg openings but scroll down a little and we see a 32 inch opening then a little further down in the fourth row there's the 50 inch opening this is a weird comeback it was heavily covered by news outlets but I honestly think they just used it as an excuse to talk about the brand and attract 90s kids to their article I don't mean any offense if you wear Jenko jeans or something like it but there's no way these jeans are making great sales the comeback was over two years ago and I've yet to see anyone wearing them or really even a similar style there's a sentence on their website that I think perfectly describes their plan Jenko sets to defy the rules of street wear and re-establish a brand and aesthetic that is purely in a class of its own looks like a very well thought out sentence you may interpret it differently but what I get from it is this there again trying to appeal to those who want to stand out and beyond like the others but again they would like for their brand to help change the popular fashion so really do the same thing that they did the first time and I would say this is probably the only thing they can do they could change up their brand and make some thinner jeans but that's not what they're known for if that's the plan might as well just change the name because that Jenko name represents thick legs that was a weird sentence it's that same reason that I don't blame them for their decline in the 90s this style was a fad and Jenko became directly associated with it when the fad died down so did they the only real way that I see to revive the company is to revive the fad that statement applies in 1999 and it applies today but remember fashions are changing in the right direction for janko's skinny jeans aren't as popular as they once were but some drastic changes still have to happen before you see people wearing these again but looking back I have to give them respect they're much more than just a pair of jeans the term fashion statement is very applicable I want to take a second to thank Skillshare for sponsoring this video Skillshare is an online learning community with more than 17,000 classes personally I've been taking a bunch of different lessons here and there but I specifically found this one helpful it's taught me a lot of really helpful tips on how to better edit these videos and do it quicker or if you're not interested in editing maybe you're into photography or writing I know some of my viewers on this channel are interested in business well they have those too and with the Skillshare Premium Membership you get unlimited access to all of it these are high-quality classes taught by experts working in their fields it's more affordable than most learning platforms out there an annual subscription is less than ten dollars a month but for the month of January they're offering three months for only 99 cents to take advantage of that offer simply go to the description section of this video and click the skill share link but before you do that let me know in the comments your thoughts about Jenko jeans did you wear these and if so what were you thinking I'm kidding of course I completely get it but maybe try to explain it anyway for those who don't I did my best but these are hard to explain and do you agree when I say their only chance to make a real comeback is to revive the fed in the 90s their target demographic was teenagers but today it's people ages 18 to 35 which happens to include myself and most of my viewers it also includes many of the people who experience this fad before we're a perfect sample to speculate on the company's future but also if you're not in this age range feel free to go to the comments and make your jokes about them I'd like to hear what you have to say real quick do you want to know where they get the name Jenko I always say Jenko but it may be pronounced Jean Co I've heard it both ways but if you say Jean Co it sounds exactly like Jean Co is in jeans company that's one explanation another one is that it means journey of the chosen ones the popular explanation is the one given by the site itself judge nun choose one not exactly sure what it's supposed to mean but it sounds like it has a deep meaning alright thank you for watching [Music]

Channel: Company Man

Views: 373,174

Keywords: JNCO, Jeans, JNCO Jeans, Fads

Id: 4KJRUHFXXj0

Length: 10min 5sec (605 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 24 2018